The Cost of College the Year You Were Born

Cameron Huddleston

2 years ago

It’s well known that the cost of college has been climbing. But rising tuition at both public and private universities hasn’t just been a recent trend. College costs have been increasing significantly for decades.

To see just how much the price tag on a postsecondary education has grown each year, GOBankingRates analyzed data on four-year institutions from the National Center for Education Statistics and the College Board, starting in 1964, the first year this data was collected. Note that the data from 1964-1970 also includes the costs for two-year institutions. Costs are in current dollars.

From 1964 to 2015, the average annual cost of a four-year public school has soared 3,772 percent. The average annual cost of a four-year private school has jumped 2,878 percent. Click through to see the annual cost of college each year since 1964, and to see how much tuition and fees increased from year to year.